Review 465: Incredibles 2

Incredibles 2 is gorgeous to look at as any Pixar film and has a few decent laughs but is overall dosen’t quite reach the Incredible height of its predecessor.

Picking up where The Incredibles left off, Helen Parr/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) is called onto a campaign to bring Supers back, while Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) navigates the day-to-day heroics of “normal” life at home with Violet (Sarah Powell), Dash (Huck Milner) and baby Jack-Jack - whose superpowers are about to be discovered.
The mission, however, is derailed when a new villain emerges with a brilliant and dangerous plan to turn the populace against Supers.

The plot is virtually a carbon copy of the first film, lacking the freshness, strong satire and genuine laughs that made the first film an animated classic. The Parr family seem tired of what's going on, a lot of the story beats and character types feel too familiar.
The idea of publicity stunt being used to regain the publics support and trust of superheroes is an intriguing one and lends itself to a lot of satire but the film never sticks with that idea and runs with it, preferring instead to recycle elements and plot points from its (superior) predecessor. Because of this approach, the titular family don't feel as if they're leant anything or grown as a unit and are hitting the same beats over and over again. It probably isn't true but it feels as if Brad Bird was animating the first draft of a script. Whereas the original Incredibles felt like Bird poured his brain out from years of digesting comic books and letting his immagination run wild, Incredibles 2 feels like he returned to that same well of inspiration for inspiration and found that it had run dry.

Opening with the titular heroes trying to save Metroville from the threat of the Underminer but ultimately, they're still blamed for it even though it hardly makes sense given that 3 months ago they litterally saved the city from Syndrome and his Omnidroid. It sets off the wrong tone for the world that was originally built. Blaming the Incredibles for issues that they couldn't control as there's a Mole Man rampaging throughout the city to begin with.

Admittedly it is fun to see Bob & Helen’s roles get switched around with Helen having all the fun which Bob is so used to and now he's stuck at home having to look after the kids but that idea kinda gets old after a short while and degenerates into sitcom level highjinks. Bob being the one accept Mirrage's offer made sense because he wants to relive his "glory days" and he can't see what he's already got.
Helen suddenly going off to partake in Winston Deavor's campaign to legalise Super's and relive her glory days just didn't ring true or fit consistently with her character from the first film where she was dedicated to her family being the main force pulling them together. So this shift in character just feels arbitrary.

A prominent subplot in this film is The Incredibles learning about baby Jack-Jack’s powers and trying to deal with them. The problem with this is we’ve already seen Jack-Jack’s powers in action - at the end of the first film no less. So for writer/director Brad Bird to retcon this is rather perplexing, lacks genuine surprise and does come across as a tad insulting.

The climax features one of the oldest, most cliched and my least favourite tropes in family films: The grown ups are out of commision so the kids have to save the day

It doesn’t really have any twists or surprises or at the very least none that you can’t see coming from a mile away.
Most of the elements that made The Incredibles great are still there, they’re just not as strong the first film and with a 14 year wait between sequels I just expected more creativity and I don't think anyone can blame me for that.

Incredibles 2 just seemed like a mess but not a god awful mess. It was still nice to look and action packed and went by at a fairly brisk pace.
On a side note, "Incredibles 2" isn't exactly a snappy title. Just saying.

Returning director Brad Bird's animation direction is lively and energetic. Thankfully telling a lacklustre story with a lot more energy than it deserves, the animation is splendid, the character design is creatively inventive, the score by Michael Giacchino is striking; much like the oringinal, it's lots of Jazz and sweeping orchesta that compliment the action and comedy seemlessly. the action scenes are exciting, the production design is excellent, it goes by reasonably quickly at a fairly brisk pace.
The jokes are very hit-or-miss - a lot of stuff involving Bob/Mr. Incredible looking after Dash, Violet and Jack-Jack felt cringy

The Incredibles themselves are impossible to dislike, but they don't seem to have grown in the slightest and have somehow regressed into becoming less efficient as a unit than on round 1. The charm that made them so compelling and likeable before is seriously lacking and despite Bird's efforts to focus more on the family dynamics it comes off as more silly and juvenile than funny or charming.

Bob doesn't feel nearly as  the screenplay doesn't give him as many opportunities to showcase his powers, loosing a hand-to

Dashes arc is mostly non existent in this film and seems to only be in the movie to be annoying and cause mayhem for Bob and Helen. He doesn't appear to have any goals or conflicts. He's just there to cause chaos and too be the hyperactive teenage boy

 

As far as Violet is concerned, she has a subplot involving her boyfriend Tony which doesn’t really go anywhere and just makes seem to that all of the confidence that she gained over the course of the first film has just vanished.
      
New to the film are some intriguingly fun characters who don’t get enough screentime and are given too little to do and ultimately reduced to such bland and colourless toothpicks.
They included Bob “Saul Goodman” Odenkirk as Winston Deavor, the head of a telecommunications company whose also a big fan of superheroes who does get a few decent laughs; his sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener).

Catherine Keener is fine as Winston's sister Evelyn who has apparently never encountered a problem she can’t solve and who turns out to be the films Big Bad: The Screenslaver, a reveal so predictable you could see it coming from a mile away and her motivations which amount to one of the weakest tragic backstorys of recent memory. She blames Supers for not coming to save her father one during a burglury even though they were illeagal at the time and she seeks to humiliate all of them which paint her as just an extremely petty and childish woman.

Phil LaMarr and Paul Eiding are also wasted as a trio of aspiring superheros, Reflux, Krushauer and He-Lectrix who don't seem to have any defining characteristics other than their powers and their boring desire to be heroic.

And One Tree Hill & Chicago P.D’s Sophia Bush as a new super named Voyd whose also an Elasigirl fan and has an appropriately spunky personality that the film could make more use of.

Even Samuel L. Jackson is criminally underused as Frozone.

Incredibles 2 is a fun ride, but the heart and creativity is missing on round 2, 3/5.

The Anonymous Critic